How do I request money for my recommendations?

[darkun]

I've been thinking about this for over a year now. Here's a bit of background.

I built my website through SBI as an online information source primarily to help out other would-be working holiday makers looking to live and work in pubs in the UK. Before I first moved to London I had absolutely no idea what I needed in terms of a bank account, tax numbers, cheap travel ideas, or how to find work in a pub, I had to find out by myself, which was a great learning experience and heaps of fun but it was a slow and expensive process.

SBI teaches that if you build a great site, that advertisers would come knocking. That hasn't happened yet. The reasons for that may be that my niche is incredibly tight and that there isn't a huge amount of marketing potential in the niche.

What I have always had in mind however is that I would recommend certain free pub job finding agencies that I have used myself and that in time they would come to offer me financial reimbursement - which hasn't happened. I'm not sure if they know of my site, although it ranks #1 on yahoo and #4 on google for site concept keyword, or if they are happy with my recommendation remaining free advertising for their services.

So my question is this:

How do I approach these agencies and ask for money to continue recommending their services?

The catch is that regardless of their answer I will not remove the recommendation as that would not be of benefit to my readers.

Any help?

[darkun]

Really, no-one has any ideas?

[BitterFlower]

This is coming from my limited experience with internet marketing but...

Instead of focusing on monetization from the agency referrals (which you may not get because they are public agencies), why not focus your monetization elsewhere?

Examples

-an ebook with a breakdown of how to get a temp job. You can probably sell it for $4.99-$9.99 if you want to do a mini book, or more if you want to be more thorough

-get affiliate links through sites related to yours. For example, you can link to career sites (like Careerbuilder) or banks in the UK with banners on your page. These for-profit sites will more likely have a commission structure set up already and you can just sign up with them or an affiliate program like Commission Junction to get set up.

And so on. I never got the sense from SBI that advertisers come to you--I figured one would still have to work on the monetization bit. I think they have a monetization brainstorming worksheet on their site so you can explore your options for monetization. Good luck and congrats on the traffic!

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by darkun

How do I approach these agencies and ask for money to continue recommending their services?

The catch is that regardless of their answer I will not remove the recommendation as that would not be of benefit to my readers.

Maybe you could contact them and offer them a "featured" listing or something of the sort, where you put a recommendation for their service in a more overt spot on your website.

I believe you could do something similar to what I remember reading some other SBI'er doing: Make a "directory" of sorts of different businesses, then offer featured or priority listings, or an in-depth review, etc, for the ones that pay.

That is all I can think of for your situation specifically.

[darkun]

oops forgot about this thread.

Thank you both for your suggestions.

Bitterflower: Your ideas are great, although I don't want much obvious advertising and banners on my site, but perhaps a small unobtrusive icon would work, however I doubt many people would sign up to a bank account online so I'm not sure how much commission I would earn other than a few cents through PPC. Likewise for employment agencies.

I had previously thought of an ebook containing more information than what is available on my site but I am doubtful as to whether my young readers would part with money for it - after all, my site is about saving as much money as possible - Still it's worth a go, at the worst it can only not work?


Curtis2011: Really good idea on the 'featured listing' suggestion, I had been thinking about something of the sort. However it still doesn't solve the problem of what to do if they just say they are not interested. A directory could be a possibility but for my super narrow niche, there just aren't that many businesses to list.

Thank you both again for your suggestions, all the best

[aiyori]

darkun,

You need to show what difference you can make. I mean how many users have actually clicked through your links. And do the agencies really care about the click-through traffic you are giving. The point is, they wouldn't give you a dime if they don't care.

By the way, how much monthly PV do you get?

And the opening paragraph "Welcome all Aussies, Kiwis, Saffas, Canadians and Americans to the internet's most comprehensive..." will be offensive to people living outside those countries. You should add "...and friends from all over the world..." unless that is intended.

Try to change the format of your site title picture to PNG. Jpeg is not suitable for pictures that have one or two colors only. PNG will be much smaller in file size and have a much higher resolution.

[darkun]

aiyori thanks for your reply.

My target audience are working holiday makers intending to move to the United Kingdom. Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand are currently the only countries that participate in the working holiday (now called the 'youth mobilty') visa. However you are correct that I am excluding (albeit unintentionally) other foreigners who can legally work in the UK - I will change my opening paragraph to something more appropriate.

Approximately 10% of my readers click through to the job placement service I currently recommend. Said recommendation is based on first hand use of the service, it's full page and highly appraising. I would hope that the agency would care that I am sending them business that may not otherwise have found the service.

I am now getting well over 4000 pv a month - still not nearly enough to make any money, must add more content!

Thanks for the tip on my title picture, it was only a very quick knock-up and I've never actually been too satisfied with it.

Cheers again for your feedback it really helps

El

[aiyori]

darkun,

You're welcome. Although your PV is low, the click through rate is as high as crazy!!

My 2 cents suggestion is that you should offer FREE service to agencies at this moment in exchange for some EXCLUSIVE job posts. The reasons are as follows:

1. Your first job now is to create traffic, not earning peanuts. 4000 PV will not make your rich now, but it can be a foundation of something much bigger.
2. You should approach the agencies to offer your service WITHOUT asking for money. Believe me, after building friendship with the agency guys, you can ask for whatever you want. But if you ask them for money as a stranger, I would kick you out of my office if I were them. The more agency friends you make, the more influential you have in your niche.
3. People get suspicious if you offer everything and ask for nothing. So I suggest asking for their service in return. The best thing they can give you, besides money, is some exclusive job posts that only visitors of your website can apply. It doesn't need to be exclusive forever. If it is really a good post, one week will be enough.

These are only my opinions, which may not apply to your real situation. But my point is that at this moment you should focus on build traffic and relationship instead of revenue.

[darkun]

Hi again aiyori,

Surprisingly there are only a few of these specific job agencies in the UK. They fill jobs very quickly - as in, within a day. They aren't advertised, they are added to the agencies database. When someone calls looking for work they are offered 2 or 3 to choose from. The job seeker calls them and picks the one that most appeals. They turn up at the pub, have a short interview and pretty much move straight in.

Having job listings on my site would be time consuming and somewhat irrelevant.


I am a bit disillusioned at the moment as not one of my monetisation methods are going anywhere. I applied to join the Ebay Partner Network and Amazon a couple of months back and have yet to hear anything.

[Nemosyne]

I don't really know this, but I think it might be likely that most people looking for pub type jobs would just walk into a pub and ask for a job rather than searching online unless they were desperate. Now, a pub staffing agency on the other hand... with short notice temps and such might be a good way to go and make money?

[davidchung]

Could you write up a pub workers guide to:

-What materials/information to prepare for their application/interview or visa stuff
-What to look for in a pub job
-What will be expected of them once they've gotten the job
-Tips and tricks on how to deal with various situations (drunk customers, unfriendly co-workers)
-How to impress their boss and get a bonus/raise

I'm sure you could sell that for some money.

Or set up an interview with one of the people from the agency that you could give to people who join your list.

What sort of problems would you be worried about if you were thinking of working in a foreign country? If you're targeting foreigners planning to work in the UK, I'm sure they also have other things to worry about besides just finding the job. List all those problems down and find a way to solve them for your visitors. Accomodations (can you arrange a special deal somewhere for cheap accommodations)? Language (Can you recommend a good course/school, or an online course/book that will help familiarize them with British English)? Food (Where to find good Japanese/Australian food)? Medical Care (Strike up a deal with a medical insurance company perhaps)? Sightseeing tours (find a travel agency who can give your visitors a special deal)?

[darkun]

Originally Posted by Nemosyne

I don't really know this, but I think it might be likely that most people looking for pub type jobs would just walk into a pub and ask for a job rather than searching online unless they were desperate. Now, a pub staffing agency on the other hand... with short notice temps and such might be a good way to go and make money?

You've never tried to find work in London before have you? There are over 200,000 Australians living in the UK, most of them in or around London. Pub jobs - and specifically, 'live-in' pub jobs are highly sought after positions. There are about 4000 pubs in London - that is a lot of walking to be doing. There are almost 60,000 pubs across the United Kingdom.

A pub staffing agency is exactly who I currently recommend. Immediate placement of temporary workers.


davidchung, what you have described is pretty close to what Live-in Pub Jobs UK does, except that I offer the information for free. I am not looking to earn money from my readers directly.

For personal reasons I do not want to commercialise my site. I offer honest advice and genuine ways to save money. If what I honestly recommend can also pay me a commission, then all the better.

I do really appreciate both your points of view. The more feedback I get, the more I can understand an outsider's impression of my site. Cheers

[Nemosyne]

Nope I haven't! 'Live-in' pub jobs? Whoa - what a crazy idea! Cool stuff.